20160923- 1st Khutba - Imam Mokhtar Maghroui

Opening Khutbah

إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنَسْتَهْدِيهِ وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ سَيِّدَنَا وَمَوْلَانَا مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ أَمَّا بَعْدُ

O people, indeed the most truthful of speech is the Book of Allah, and the best of guidance is the guidance of our master and our lord Muhammad, may Allah send His blessings and peace upon him, his family, and his companions. The worst of matters are newly invented ones, and every newly invented matter is an innovation, and every innovation is a misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire.

O you who have attained faith, be Allah-conscious — have awe and reverence in your hearts and minds for Allah in a way that is worthy of who He is: worthy of His essence, worthy of His names and attributes, worthy of His beauty and majesty, worthy of His bounty and favours, subhanahu wa ta'ala.

Welcome Back and the Spirit of Year-End Reflection

My dear beloved brothers and sisters, it is good to be back home and to see you all and to be with you, after having spent at least two months — and I had to, in my own mediocre way, try to serve my mother. She sends a lot of salām and she asks for a lot of du'ā from you. It was very painful and emotional to leave her, and it is good and a bounty from Allah also to be back with you, to continue to learn and grow and worship together for as long as it pleases Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala.

We are looking very closely at the end of the year — the end of the Hijri year. Soon it will end, to begin a new year. And when a year passes, those who are wise, those who think, those who are mature, gauge and evaluate the year past and prepare for the year to come. And in that context, I am going to begin this khutbah and end this khutbah in that spirit: to evaluate, to remind myself to evaluate and yourselves, and to prepare for next year and for the years to come.

And to that end, I chose — by the grace of Allah — to ponder some of the words of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, about our existence in this life, about our pursuits in this life, about our challenges in this life, and about our opportunities in this life.

Remember the Favours of Allah Upon You

Allah azza wa jal says, addressing all mankind:

O mankind, O people, O human beings — remember. اذْكُرُوا — mention and remember, which is the opposite of forgetting. Don't forget. Don't be one who forgets. Remember. Second: اذْكُرُوا نِعْمَةَ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ — remember the favour of God, the favour of Allah upon you. For often we human beings — Muslims and others — do remember more, as we said before, the hard times, the challenges, the miseries, the pain, the suffering. We remember that which we do not have and we forget that which we have. So Allah says: اذْكُرُوا نِعْمَةَ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ — do not forget, no matter what the circumstances would be. Do not forget the favour of Allah upon you. And we all have favours all the time from Allah upon us.

The First Favour: The Favour of Existence (نِعْمَةُ الْإِيجَادِ)

As He continues to say: هَلْ مِنْ خَالِقٍ غَيْرُ اللَّهِ — is there a creator besides God, besides Allah, other than Allah? Reminding you and me that at one point nothing was — we were not. لَمْ يَكُنْ لَنَا وُجُودٌ فَأَوْجَدَنَا. So He reminds us with His saying هَلْ مِنْ خَالِقٍ غَيْرُ اللَّهِ of the favour of bringing us into existence first — and all things. اذْكُرُوا نِعْمَةَ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ هَلْ مِنْ خَالِقٍ غَيْرُ اللَّهِ — He is the creator of all things, azza wa jal. And this is a نِعْمَة. Most of us — immature intellectually and immature spiritually and immature morally — we do not pay attention to the نِعْمَة of the إِيجَاد, to the نِعْمَة of being.

The Second Favour: The Favour of Sustenance (نِعْمَةُ الْإِمْدَادِ)

يَرْزُقُكُم مِّنَ السَّمَاءِ وَالْأَرْضِ — He provides for you from space and on earth. There are نِعَم, bounties and favours and gifts of Allah to us. His نِعَم in space — the resources of space are innumerable, that we on earth use and make use of and profit from. Space and all its resources — مِنَ السَّمَاءِ — not only the clouds and water that comes from the clouds, but all the resources that exist in space. Remember that. And those on earth, remember that. يَرْزُقُكُم مِّنَ السَّمَاءِ وَالْأَرْضِ.

لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ فَأَنَّىٰ تُؤْفَكُونَ — there is no deity worthy of being loved and worshipped except He, subhanahu wa ta'ala. So why do you choose other than He to lovingly worship and to lovingly attach to — including our own selves and our own resources? Why do you cling and hold to that fast, instead of holding strong and fast to Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala? فَأَنَّىٰ تُؤْفَكُونَ — what a terrible decision you make.

اذْكُرُوا نِعْمَةَ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ — let the year be evaluated in terms of how much have we been grateful to the favours of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala; how much have we remembered them. And let us plan for the year to come to do better than the year that passed in terms of our relationship with the مُنْعِم — the bestower of the نِعَم — with the bestower of the favours upon us, subhanahu wa ta'ala.

وَمُلَاحَظَةُ النِّعَمِ يَقْتَضِي الشُّكْرَ عَلَى النِّعَمِ — those who observe and pay attention to the favours, it means they have to be responsible towards those favours. And of that responsibility is to be grateful to the bestower of the نِعَم. And to be grateful is to use them in the way He loves — not only to mention them by tongue and by heart and to recognize that the gifts are from Him in your mind and in your heart and by your tongue, but also to make use of them in the way He loves: not in the way I desire, but in the way He loves.

The Inner Favours (النِّعَمُ الظَّاهِرَةُ وَالْبَاطِنَةُ)

All the نِعَم — the external favours that we perceive and we feel and we sense and we experience externally, and those that are internal. كُنْتُ جَاهِلًا فَعَلَّمَنِي — this is نِعْمَة, O servant of Allah. You were ignorant and He taught you — نِعْمَةُ الْعِلْمِ. كُنْتُ ظَالِمًا فَهَدَانِي — I was lost and He guided me. I was astray and He led me, and He guided my heart and my feelings and my emotions. He brought me back to Him when I was running away from Him — نِعْمَةُ الْهِدَايَةِ.

كُنْتُ غَافِلًا فَأَيْقَظَنِي — we were, I was somewhere distracted, and He woke us up. We were too busy with other less important things, some of us, and He — by His grace and favour, subhanahu wa ta'ala — woke me up. كُنْتُ غَافِلًا فَأَيْقَظَنِي. I was asleep and He woke me up. I was not paying attention and He drew my attention to that which is important and to Him, subhanahu wa ta'ala — to discover my mediocrities, my inconsistencies, my faults, my crimes, my sins. And I was غَافِلًا, enjoying myself as though I were a saint, and He woke me up and He brought me back.

كُنْتُ عَاصِيًا فَأَرْفَقَنِي لِطَاعَتِهِ — I was disobedient, I was a sinner, and He — by His grace — led me to obedience, led me to His طَاعَة, subhanahu wa ta'ala. These are نِعَم that we forget. The نِعْمَة of أَمَان — of security. The نِعْمَة of سَلَام — of peace. The نِعْمَة of a loving, caring family and children. The نِعْمَة of a house in which I worship Him in peace and in security. The نِعْمَة of the freedom to be, and the freedom to express myself — my deepest, most sincere emotions — in my relationship with Him, subhanahu wa ta'ala, and with others. These نِعَم we forget.

اذْكُرُوا نِعْمَةَ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ — my beloved brothers and sisters, instead of constantly counting the moments of misery and remembering the moments of misery and only the hardships and the difficulties of whatever kind they be — and even we use them to scare one another and to intimidate one another — we forget the نِعَم of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, upon us, and therefore we forget our responsibility towards those نِعَم, towards those favours.

A Prophetic Guidance on Gratitude

My beloved brothers and sisters, our Messenger, our master, may Allah send His blessings and peace upon him and his family and companions, says:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6490; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2963)

Pay attention — spend your attention span and your time of attention to notice those who are less than you, instead of spending time and your attention focused on those who are more than you in this world, in this دُنْيَا. He said: if you do that, that would be indeed the most instrumental means for you not to belittle the favours of Allah upon you.

And then:

And if some do not pay attention to this discourse, and they don't like it and they don't agree with it and they don't care about it and they deny it — so be it. Rasulullah, may Allah send His blessings and peace upon him, is مُنْذِرٌ وَبَشِير — a warner and a bringer of glad tidings. He does not impose on you. So those who listen to this message and deny it — there are those before who were denied; messengers before were denied. And after all, to Allah shall all matters be brought back, and by Allah they shall all be decided. وَإِلَى اللَّهِ تُرْجَعُ الْأُمُورُ — you are never alone and you will never be left alone. You are always in the territory of Allah, in the creation of Allah, under the أَمْر of Allah, and under the حُكْم of Allah. وَإِلَى اللَّهِ تُرْجَعُ الْأُمُورُ — and we will be held to account, about minor things and major things.

The Promise of Allah Is True

And He continues to say — reminding us again about evaluating ourselves, as I view it, and looking into the future:

O people, O mankind — the promise of God, the word of God, the promise of Allah is true. وَعْدَ اللَّهِ حَقٌّ. فَلَا تَغُرَّنَّكُمُ الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا — don't allow the life of this world to deceive you and to delude you.

وَعْدُ اللَّهِ — the promise of Allah — not only the promise of resurrection and the promise of accountability and the promise of reward and punishment — not only that after we die — but the promise in this world. After He said remember and don't forget the bounties of Allah and the favours of Allah, He said: إِنَّ وَعْدَ اللَّهِ حَقٌّ.

Those who are like that — who feel that presence of Allah always in their hearts — the وَعْد of Allah is always حَقّ. Of the وَعْد of Allah in the Quran:

That's a وَعْد. And those who rely upon Allah, Allah suffices them. And التَّوَكُّل is in the heart — not a word. التَّوَكُّل is a state of mind, is a state of inner self — not a word, not an intellectual recognition, not an intellectual understanding — but it is a وَجْد, a قَلْبِيَّة رُوحِيَّة صِفَة — an attitude, an energy inside of reliance on Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala. The comfort that the heart and the mind finds in knowing that Allah is, and that Allah is the خَالِق and the sustainer and the Lord of everything. وَمَن يَتَوَكَّلْ عَلَى اللَّهِ فَهُوَ حَسْبُهُ — this is a وَعْد, this is a promise of Allah: you do that, Allah will suffice you in all your matters of دُنْيَا and of آخِرَة — of your life, of your sustenance, of your struggle, of your pursuit of livelihood.

That's a وَعْد, that's a promise: it is He, subhanahu wa ta'ala, who will lend His support to those who are righteous. Be righteous — the promise is He will take care of you.

That's a promise, that's a وَعْد: be in ذِكْر of me, I shall be in ذِكْر of you. Remember me, I remember you.

That's a وَعْد: he who — or she who — exhibits تَقْوَى in his heart or her heart, in his relationship with Allah — يَجْعَل لَّهُ مَخْرَجًا — Allah will provide for such a person a way out from any challenge and any difficulty, and will provide for such a person from ways that person never anticipated and never evaluated and never gauged and never paid attention to.

إِنَّ وَعْدَ اللَّهِ حَقٌّ — and resurrection is حَقّ, death is حَقّ, accountability is حَقّ. إِنَّ وَعْدَ اللَّهِ حَقٌّ. Therefore — فَلَا تَغُرَّنَّكُمُ الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا — don't let the life of this world delude you, make you forget Allah, make you forget the encounter with Allah, make you forget preparing to encounter Allah, azza wa jal, after we die.

The Two Dimensions of Dunya: Wealth and Status

Don't let دُنْيَا — the opportunities that we seek in this دُنْيَا, even legitimate opportunities — don't let them make you forget Him and to meet Him and to prepare to meet with Him. Don't let the challenges of this دُنْيَا — the difficulties and the hardships and the challenges that we face in this دُنْيَا at all categories and at all levels — don't let them make you forget Him and forget to remember His bounties and forget to prepare to meet with Him, subhanahu wa ta'ala.

دُنْيَا is two-fold: دُنْيَا is مَال وَجَاه. دُنْيَا is comprised of two elements: wealth and what you may call power. Wealth — you know, all sort of wealth and resources, all of them. Don't let the pursuit of even legitimate wealth and resources of all kinds, as individuals and nations — don't let that. And جَاه is the desire — the desire in us for recognition, for status, for power at all levels. We desire recognition in a masjid. People want to be recognized in a family structure. People want to be recognized in social encounters. People want to be recognized in a company, in an institution, in a state. People want to be recognized — that's the thymotic desire inside of human beings, as one philosopher put it.

Don't let that desire in us — to be recognized and to have status at any level: family level, masjid level, work level, political level — at any level, that's جَاه: status, power — not only political power and military power, but intellectual power, social power, family power — at all levels. Don't let the opportunities and the challenges and the جَاه and the مَال that we seek in this دُنْيَا make you forget Allah, forget His ذِكْر, forget to prepare for the encounter with Him, forget to behave in moral and ethical ways. Don't let the opportunities and the challenges that we seek make me, make you, behave immorally, in an ugly way — lose our أَخْلَاق and behave like one without خُلُق — قَبِيحُ الْخُلُقِ شَرِسُ النَّفْسِ — because that's what الْمَالُ وَالْجَاه do to us when we pursue wealth and we pursue جَاه — recognition and status — in ways that are not consistent with what Allah desires, with what Allah loves. Then that's what will happen to us. Don't do that. Strive — strive hard not to fall into that trap.

Remember your past year — how did you do — and plan for the next year to be grateful to Allah.

Do Not Be Deluded by Shaytan

وَلَا يَغُرَّنَّكُم بِاللَّهِ الْغَرُورُ — and don't let the deluder, the ultimate deluder, delude you in your relationship with Allah. And who is the ultimate deluder? Shaytan is the ultimate deluder. Because a deluded person is a person who gauges and evaluates himself more than he really is — out of كِبْر, out of arrogance and out of self-conceitedness, and out of إِعْجَاب, or out of رِيَاء — ostentation — and so on, or out of desire for جَاه, for recognition and status. That's a deluded person — مَغْرُور. Shaytan is the ultimate مَغْرُور, because he evaluated himself in front of the Divine more than what the Divine allowed him. So he is also deluded — and the ultimate deluder — wanting us to be deluded and to gauge ourselves more than we are, at all levels.

Don't let him do that to you in your relationship with Allah. وَلَا يَغُرَّنَّكُم بِاللَّهِ الْغَرُورُ. And بِاللَّهِ here — what does it mean? As the people of knowledge say: sometimes those of us who think — we think we are smart, we think we know how to analyze and synthesize, we think we know how to write and know how to speak and know how to challenge — some of us are deluded in evaluating ourselves. So the deluder uses that delusion in us and, for example, comes and suggests: "Oh you are so concerned about God, and God in everything — if you think God is infinite and infinitely bountiful and infinitely independent, God is in no need therefore of your عِبَادَة, God is in no need of your worship, God is in no need of you denying Him. So why do you think this is going to affect God — that God will be angry at you, little one?" This is delusion in your عِبَادَة, in your تَكْذِيب or in your تَعْذِيب. "God will punish you for what you do? God is غَنِيّ — God is in no need to punish you." Don't think that way.

Be free — don't let the ultimate deluder delude you in your relationship with Allah. Strive to worship Allah as though you see Him. Do not deny Him. Yes, He is in no need of you denying Him — but He ordered you not to deny Him. He is in no need to punish you — but He said: if you don't obey, I will punish you. All creation is His. Nothing was when He was. Subhanahu wa ta'ala has always been.

Closing Reflection and Call to Action

My beloved brothers and sisters, ponder these words of Allah. Evaluate ourselves about the year past, and prepare ourselves — in this spirit — for the year to come.

May Allah help us all.

I say what I have said and I ask Allah the Magnificent for forgiveness — for me and for you. So seek His forgiveness. What an excellent abode awaits those who sincerely seek forgiveness.

Second Part of the Khutbah — Du'ā

All praise is due to Allah and may His blessings and peace be upon His chosen servants.

O Allah, please forgive us what has passed and rectify for us what is coming.

O Allah, please do not entrust us to ourselves nor to anything of Your creation for not even a moment of a blink of an eye. And rectify for us — by Your grace and favour and bounty and mercy — rectify for us everything about us in our relationship with You.

O servants of Allah, rise to your prayer — may Allah have mercy on you.